


Over The Edge

by Anonymouspotato



Series: Autistic!Player Drabbles [3]
Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Angst, Autistic Player (Carmen Sandiego), Chase is here too, Chief is a Boss-Ass Bitch, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Julia is not comfortable with this, Kidnapping, Light Whump, Needles, Neither is Player, Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 19:16:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20822447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymouspotato/pseuds/Anonymouspotato
Summary: The team’s latest heist goes wrong, and Player has to suffer the consequences.





	Over The Edge

**Author's Note:**

> So, there’s kidnapping, shots, and Chase Devineux being a dumbass in this. Fair warning-take care of yourself, folks.

Player didn’t remember where everything went wrong.

One minute, everything was going smoothly-Carmen was making off with the high tech detonator V.I.L.E was planning to use to destabilize the Christ The Redeemer statue. The next, Paper Star has ambushed her on the way, Zach was driving her through the streets and alleys of Rio de Janeiro at breakneck speeds with Ivy running interference, and Player was packing up his equipment as fast as he could. 

He was perched on the roof of one of the buildings in one of the larger favelas, on the north side of the city, where they’d been laying low. He shoved the collapsed antenna into his backpack, concentrating on keeping his breathing steady. This was the first time something had gone wrong in the month since he’d left Ontario. A meltdown wouldn’t help them make a clean getaway.

_ “Playah, we’re coming in hot.”  _ Said Zach over the earpiece.  _ “Be ready at the front door.” _

“You got it.” He replied, shoving the last of his stuff into his backpack. He mentally thanked Ivy for teaching him a little parkour and dipped into their flimsy two story building through the front window.

He dropped everyone’s bags onto a pile of trash in front of the house, and bolted down the ladder. He was almost out the front door, when something caught his ankle. Player slammed into the ground, ratting his senses and nearly splitting his skull.

He looked up to see someone shadowed by the moon light coming in from the door. They had short hair, and probably glasses. They briefly covered their mouth, before someone else, standing behind him, cheered triumphantly in a masculine voice, and put a white bag over his head.

The person in front of Player-he could see their silhouette through the fabric-gently tied the bag under his chin and at the nape of his neck, before his was lifted in someone’s arms and carried out of the building. The inside of the bag smelled funny, like hospitals and honey, and it made his eyelids heavy. He fought to stay conscious, long enough to notice he was being put in the back of a truck, but sleep’s tendrils gripped him soon enough, and pulled him into unconsciousness.

When Player came too, he made a point to avoid showing it. Granted, it wasn’t that hard. Everything looked murky, like he was seeing through someone else’s glasses, and his hearing faded in and out, never enough to hook onto a sentence. 

When he finally came back to himself, he started flexing his fingers, only to realize his hands were cuffed behind his back, and his ankles were similarly bound to the chair with thick cords. Two people-his kidnappers, likely-were speaking with a third person, who looked suspiciously  _ blue.  _ Whatever they knocked him out with must still be in his system.

“How do I administer this, exactly?” Asked the shorter kidnapper, the one with a pixie cut and glasses. She had a faint accent he couldn’t place-British? East Asian?

“The blue one is the serum, the white is the neutralizing agent. Simply insert the needle into a near-the-surface vein and inject. It should only take a minute or two to kick in.” Said the blue person; a woman with no clear accent, dark skin, and a light colored buzz cut. 

“Miss Argent, if you are zis nervous, I shall do it. I ‘ave remarkably steady ‘ands.” A tall man, with greying brown hair and a heavy French accent.  _ Inspector Devineux. Fuck. _

He made a choked gasp, which made the three turn and look at him. Devineux raised his chin, and the surprising, rough contact made him want to scream. He bit his lip instead, drawing thin streams of blood. It hurt, but it was something to focus on. The bright lights and the hand on his shoulder and the one on his chin and the light in his eyes and the three faces and how the  _ hell _ is she blue-

_ Focus on your lip. Focus on your lip. _

“He’s concious.” Said Devineux. The petite woman with the pixie cut-Julia Argent-crouched down to his right. She kept some distance between them, and didn’t touch him, which was good. He didn’t need more to process right then.

“Young man.” She said gently. “We don’t want to hurt you. We just need to ask you some questions about V.I.L.E-”

“ _ And _ Carmen Sandiego!”

“...and Carmen Sandiego.” Julia gave her partner the stink eye.

_ I like her. _ Player thought to himself.  _ She doesn’t take anyone’s shit. Too bad we’re on opposite sides-wait, did she say V.I.L.E? _

“Young man?” Julia quietly clapped in front of his face, bringing him back to the present. “We’ll be as quick as we can. Now...what is your name?” He saw a blinking light in her pocket-the key to his handcuffs.

“...Call me Player.” He reached his hand out with what wiggle room he, brushing the tip of the hard drive with his fingers, and gently nudging it into his palm.

“Your  _ real  _ name.” He closed his fist around the hard drive.

“Why the hell would I tell you?” He guided it into the square plug in the middle of his handcuffs.

As it calibrated, preparing to release him, Julia frowned, and picked up a thin silver case, with a shape similar to the V.I.L.E hard drive still sitting in his backpack, and an unfamiliar logo on the front-a blue globe behind the word A.C.M.E.

She opened the case, revealing two very sharp looking needles, both full of fluid-one clear blue, the other an opaque off-white. The conversation from earlier popped into his head, and he started to panic.

“Wh-what are you doing? Don’t go near me! You said you wouldn’t hurt me!” He strained against his still-loosening handcuffs. He was only half acting-he did  _ not  _ like needles.

It seemed like it was working, though. Julia’s hand hovered above the blue needle, trembling slightly. Her eyes rapidly darted between his face, the blue woman, and the needle. “I don’t know if we should-”

“Please, Miss Argent!” Chase  _ fucking _ Devineux grabbed the blue syringe and confidently walked towards player. “Per’aps Chief can make you somezing zat will give you a spine. I can ‘andle zis.”

He grabbed Player’s hair and pulled his head to the side, revealing the vein in his neck. “We shall see what you know now, scoundrel!” He plunged the needle into Player’s neck and pushed down on the plunger.

It was like magma in his veins. It burned and crackled as it spread through his limbs, and when it reached his head he thought it was going to explode into a gooey mess. The cuffs finally fell away, but it didn’t matter. It was  _ agony. _

And then it all faded, leaving him tired and sore and numb. It was like recovering from a meltdown, except he was  _ still _ in  _ actual danger. _ His arms hung uselessly at his sides.

“Let us try zis again.” Devineux leaned down into his face. “What ees your name?”

Player tried to grit his teeth. He tried to stop his throat from pushing the words out into the air. It didn’t matter.

“Brian Williams.”

“Where are you from?”

“Ontario, Canada.”

“Are you working with La Femme Rouge?”

“Yes.”

_ I’m sorry Carmen. I’m really really sorry. _

Over the next fifteen minutes, they grilled him about everything. How he met Carmen. The location of the Isle of V.I.L.E. Zach and Ivy-how they met, what they did. And then they hit the big one.

“Where exactly did you learn to hack as well as you do?” Asked Julia.

“My mom, and the internet.”

Argent and Devineux looked at each other. “What does your mom do?”

“She works for the government, stopping cyber crimes.”

The blue woman’s eyebrows lifted. She stepped forward and gently put a hand over Devineux’s mouth before he could ask another question. “Is your mother named Amanda Williams? Five foot seven, dirty blond hair, gray eyes like your own?”

Player’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Yeah...that sounds like her.”

Blue Lady bit down on her thumbnail. “Unbelievable.”

“Chief?” Argent rung her hands. “What is it.”

“Amanda Williams was A.C.M.E’s head of anti-cyberterrorist operations in Canada.”

A dead silence hung over the room as a million thoughts catapaulted themselves through Player’s head.  _ My mom is...what...she...how…this isn’t...WHAT? _

“Either V.I.L.E has infiltrated the highest levels of A.C.M.E, and her disappearance was planned…” She stared Player down with all the intensity of the sun. “Or we may have to reconsider where Carmen Sandiego fits into this puzzle. Mr. Williams, are you, Carmen Sandiego, or any of your associates working with V.I.L.E?”

Player actually answered himself, really  _ himself, _ this time. “No. Kind of the opposite, actually.”

Devineux stuck a finger at his nose. “What do you _ mean, _ ze opposite?”

“Carmen was raised by V.I.L.E, but left them because she didn’t want to hurt people. The four of us have been using their information to steal things back from V.I.L.E and stop their schemes before they happen all over the world. Well, I only joined the globetrotting after what happened with mom.”

The three agents of A.C.M.E stood, stunned. Then, Devineaux stood in a corner and started shaving his hands and making big noises-player wasn’t sure if he was weeping with despair or laughing like a maniac.

Julia pinched the bridge of her nose, before pulling out the syring filled with opaque white liquid.  _ The antidote. _

“Are you sure we can’t get more out of him, Agent Argent?”

“We know he’s not our enemy. Keeping him like this will only lead to distrust.” She smiled at him. “Our next course of action is to find Carmen Sandiego and work out an arrangement. Young man, could you please tilt your head to this side?”

“Of course.” He tilted his head to the side. He was going to get out of here, see Carmen again, and they would never again be harassed by Chase Garfield Devineux.

(Player has looked up his middle name a few months back, and was happy to learn it was suitably hilarious.)

The needle was being pulled out of his skin when the door to the closet they were in burst open. “Anybody move and I’ll punch ya lights out!” Said a familiar voice.

“Ivy!” Player grinned at his friend, who was holding a wooden baseball bat. “I broke out of my cuffs!”

“You broke out of your cuffs? Ivy smiled. “That’s awesome, Playah. Alright you three! Stick ‘em up before I make ya!”

Chase stuck his hands in the air.

“Miss...Ivy, I presume?” Chief crossed her arms in a power pose. “We just want to talk.”

“How...how do ya…” She shook her head, then swung her bat at the Chief with a mighty roar. It passed through her stomach like it wasn’t even there.

“Well, this just keeps gettin’ weirda and weirda. Why-”

“Ivy.” A gloved hand rested on her shoulder and gently pushed her aside. Carmen stepped into the doorway, with her hands in tight fists and a cold steeliness in her eyes Player had never seen before. “Devineux, I don’t know what the  _ fuck _ you were thinking kidnapping my friend, but if you don’t give him back this second, I swear-”

“Carmen Sandiego.” Chief stood in front of her.

“What the hell do you want?”

“To apologize, for one. Ms. Sandiego, we had reason to believe you were working with V.I.L.E. Agents Argent and Devineux abducted your friend in the hopes of learning more about there operations. You could say we got more than we bargained for. But I believe there is a silver lining.”

Carmen’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by silver lining?”

“You want to take down V.I.L.E, and so do we. You have intimate knowledge and experience both working with them and outwitting them, we have manpower and technology that exceeds yours. It would be in our best interests to collaborate, at least in the short term.”

“Give me one good reason I should trust you guys after what you’ve done.”

“If you don’t, we could arrest you here and now.”

Carmen grinned. “You can’t keep up with V.I.L.E-what makes you think you can keep up with me?”

Chief had no words for that.

Feeling had finally returned to Player’s limbs, so he did the first thing he could think of. He leaped at his best friend and hugged her as tight as he could. “C-carm…”

The bitter smile fell away from her lips, and she gently patted his head. “Shh. I got you, Player. You’re gonna be okay.” Her grey eyes looked almost black as she glared at Devineux, Argent, and Chief. “I promise.”

Player was angry and sad and scared, but mostly he was just  _ tired. _ He vaguely noticed Carmen handing him off to Ivy, and Ivy bringing him outside to the car, and Zach driving them to the airport to get the heck out of Brazil, and falling asleep in the back seat. There was a strange sense of nervous anticipation in his chest, but it disappeared with the rest of the world as he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my WIP folder for about six months, so I finally buckled down and finished. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
